Brazil Election 2014: President Dilma Rousseff Leads In Polls, Could Win Election Without Runoff

Incumbent Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff led a new election poll with 40.6 percent of voter support Saturday, Reuters reported. Her main competitors Aecio Neves and Marina Silva are neck and neck with 24.0 percent and 21.4 percent, respectively.

Rousseff would require either more than 50 percent of the ballots cast or more votes than those given to all other candidates combined to win the election outright Sunday and avoid a runoff against the runner-up Oct. 26, Bloomberg News said.

Whether in the first round or the second round, Rousseff and her center-left Workers’ Party have been forecasted to win Brazil’s presidential election by Citibank analysts in the country who recently revised their prediction, according to Reuters. “We now see the incumbent president, Dilma Rousseff, being re-elected with 67 percent of chances,” they wrote in a note to clients.

In previous polling, Silva had been favored to win, but her numbers have declined in the last month. Meanwhile, Neves’ numbers have remained steady. As the incumbent’s competitors are even in the polls, statistically speaking, it is unclear who she might face in the event of a runoff.

Although still struggling, Brazil’s economy has improved by some measures since Rousseff won the presidency. Unemployment has reached an all-time low, the minimum wage has increased and a program allowing thousands of doctors to migrate to Brazil from Cuba has been implemented, as BBC News reported.

However, after the 2014 World Cup -- costing an estimated $14 billion and leading to a series of protests that rocked Brazil last year -- critics were unsure Rousseff could maintain her position. As of Saturday, polling indicates she may remain the first female president of Brazil.